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Pope Joan
Pope Joan
Pope Joan
Audiobook19 hours

Pope Joan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

A captivating historical novel, Pope Joan is an international best-seller. Set in the brutal Dark Ages, a time when women were viewed as the root of sin, this novel tells the remarkable tale of one of history's greatest controversies. Denied the priesthood by society's rules, young Joan seizes her opportunity to join a monastery when she assumes her murdered brother's identity and takes the name John Anglicus. Putting her brilliant mind to good use, she excels as a scholar and healer. Joan eventually finds her way to Rome, where the lures of passion and politics threaten to expose her secret. But Joan rises above even these obstacles to achieve the pinnacle of Catholic power-the Papacy.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 16, 2009
ISBN9781440779879
Pope Joan

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Reviews for Pope Joan

Rating: 3.905479413242009 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,095 ratings63 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an excellent book. The historical fiction as exciting as Pillars of the Earth BUT with a powerful woman in the lead. All women need to read this, tell their sisters, daughter, granddaughters, and nieces.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting! I had never heard of the possibility there had been a Pope who was a woman. It's a well-written story and I enjoyed reading it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is by far the most satisfying novel I’ve read in ages. It may be that I had been stuck in a Mystery and Thriller mode for quite sometime but that said this fast paced ride through the worst of the dark ages years was a totally engaging
    Flight of Christian/pagan anti feminist, feminism is a very worthy read true or not. Don’t skip the post script for any reason.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I ended up aborting at about the 40% mark because I felt like I was reading a Harlequin Romance with a smattering of Latin that added nothing to the narrative.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As a big fan of historical fiction, particularly set in the middle ages, I mostly enjoyed Pope Joan. The author, Cross, did an excellent job of recreating what it probably was like for a woman to grow up in ninth-century Europe, as well as describing the early Christian church. I also was fascinated by her description of Rome during this period, having read a lot about the late Republic and Empire.

    As an agnostic, I definitely embrace Joan's notion that reason and logic are humanity's most important gifts. But I don't think that they ultimately confirm many aspects of her faith. I think the church fathers were probably right to fear reason, as it would in the end undermine their faith.

    I also had problems with the ending. Clearly, the author felt it was important to at least hew somewhat closely to the legend of Pope Joan, and that includes how her gender was finally revealed. I think she was right to do this, but I had a lot of trouble with Joan's lingering in Rome when someone as smart as she was, with a chance at happiness with her lover, clearly knew the danger she was in. Of course, that's the trick with fictionalizing true stories or well-known legends. But, at its best, the book makes you think about why, for so long, women have been held back as less-than-equal partners. As patriarchal a society as ancient Rome was, Europe in the dark ages was a definite step backward. It's taken a long time to get to the point we're at, and still there are millions who would again plunge us backward. There's clearly something deeply frightening about women to some (most?) men. This novel doesn't answer what it is, but it certainly presents some clues and raises other pertinent questions.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fascinating. Was there a female Pope? Contemporary records have supposedly been obliterated, and there is only an account written some time after the event, which took place 853-855 AD.
    I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is easy to read and I finished in less than a week. I do have an issue with some of the events in this novel; there were too many timely and nearly miraculous "saves" for the main character. I understand there truly isn't very much to go on,in describing Joan's life. For me it just felt a bit too false. Despite this I was able to enjoy myself with this novel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is another book I would like to give 3.5 stars. I thought the story was interesting and the descriptions of life in the 9th century. I enjoyed the bits of history (although we didn't need to make it almost to the end to find out that Karolus and Constantine are the same person!). But I thought the way the story was written, with all the last-minute saves and the fact that all characters were either good or evil, did not do justice to the story. It was an easy read and I am glad I read it but it's not a book I will come back to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was one of the most spectacular historical fiction novels I have read. So well researched, yet intricately crafted to create a dazzling story. Cross inspired as a reviver of long-forgotten women and the lies that have been written to hide them. Absolutely recommended!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ms. Cross writes a plausible story of the legend of Pope Joan and how she found herself pope of the Catholic Church in the 9th century. My ability to lose myself in the story was hampered by the too modern feel of the characters and some of the episodes that occur.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5


    I think I loved this book for different reasons than most people. For a long book, the pacing was excellent. Also, I felt the author was great with the handling of emotion. Each emotion felt real, and earned. There were times it was agony, but she had me in the palm of her hand. I was invested.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel caught my eye because when I glanced at it at my favorite used bookstore, I initially read the title as it was, "Pope Joan", and thought I had mis-read it as Pope John. Nope, it really is titled Pope Joan. The synopsis from the back cover seemed interesting, even though I'm not a religious person nor am I particularly interested in religious history. However, this novel is actually a historical fiction account. Set in the ninth century, Joan is a strong-minded and highly intelligent girl born to a father who automatically loathes her because she is a girl. Eventually, Joan hides her true gender and becomes John. Along the way, she moves up into the church hierarchy and ultimately becomes Pope. Of course, she accomplishes this without her peers finding out that she's really a female. There are a few that do find out the truth but they keep her secret. There's a love interest for Joan as well.In real life, there are arguments for and against whether there was really a Pope Joan. In an author's note at the end of this book, Donna Woolfolk Cross shares this information and the possible supporting evidence with the reader. The reader is left to decide, and I think that yes there was a Pope Joan. I'd certainly like to think so.As a woman, it was hard at times for me to read about how misogynistic men were towards women during that era. However, the author doesn't take on a preachy tone toward the mores of the times, or towards religion in general. Overall, a good read, and although it is 422 pages long, I finished it much sooner than I thought I would.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a good book! I love historical fiction that teaches me something because I have to look up the facts while I'm reading it. The best book I've read in a while. The author did an excellent job following history and she wrote an interesting section at the end that includes more information about her research and other things she found out while writing Joan's story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A clearly well-researched novel about Pope Joan, a supposed ninth-century pope supposed to have been a woman. The author has clearly done her research about the ninth-century and is able to incorporate many, well-documented events into the novel and into the characters' lives. Joan emerges as a very likable character, an unwanted daughter who nevertheless receives an education to match her intellect, and eventually disguises herself as a man, becoming a monk, healer, adviser to Popes, and eventually Pope herself. While even the author admits in the closing notes that Joan's existence is difficult to prove or disprove, this novel does provide a fascinating insight into a period that little is known about. Definitely recommended for historical fiction fans!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Formulaic historical fiction with the requisite plucky heroine fighting misogyny, cruelty, and superstition. Characters were black and white with little-to-no character growth. Problems were solved through coincidences. Not an awful book--the author shows her extensive research of an era that we know little about today.Pope Joan is fabled to have lived in the most obscure of times--that being the 9th century. Scholars (NOT just the Catholic Church) determine that Pope Joan probably did not exist--however, the story is buried so far back in history that I think it's more fun to believe that she was real.This is a fascinating period of history about which we know so little, and that was my favourite thing about this book. At the end, the author outlines a handful of errors that readers wrote her about from the first edition, and she corrected them for later editions, so I have to give her kudos for doing that.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A purely fictional account of a controversial and long-debated person ... quite the fascinating tale.


    ***POTENTIAL SPOILER***



    The ending left me feeling a bit vague and unsettled. It seemed far more a storybook ending than was likely, although the epilogue was priceless.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    During the recent lead up to the newest pope, I wondered why had the old pope Benedict resigned? it was all so irregular and unprecedented. I conjured up my own version of a dark, embarrassing hush up that would last until many years after Benedict's death, when burial preparation would have shown that he had been transgendered, a woman who had lived as a man. Pretty original, eh? No. Not at all the first female pope came on the scene, according to rumor and legend, almost a thousand years ago, and she was called Pope Joan.

    The book "Pope Joan" is a recent novelization of an old legend, and it did not engage me. I am reassured that my perfect track record of having no original ideas is still perfect.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Joan is a young girl yearning for more than women are typically allowed during her time, and circumstances throw her into a situation where she must pretend to be a man in order to gain the education and learning that she desires, eventually leading her to become Pope. The book is based on possibly a true story, or at least historical rumor, which made it all the more interesting to me. Reads like a biography and covers such an interesting time and subject.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is historic fiction at its best. The story of a intelligent young girl who hid her gender so that she could study in the monasteries. She rose in the Catholic hierarchy all the way to the top to become Pope - I guess she really leaned in to her career! People in Rome still talk about whether or not there was a female Pope and even today, one of the criteria before officially naming a Pope is for a Cardinal to check if he/she is male! I read this to prepare for a vacation to Rome. While we were there, Pope Benedict resigned the papacy which was the buzz the whole time we were there and made this book even more relevant.

    The audio version is beautifully performed by Barbara Rosenblat. This is one of those occasions of a perfect match between book and narrator - Bravo!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed this very plausible, well-written historical novel. It’s vivid both in the settings and in the characters. It’s a brutal time, in which people are constantly fending off invaders and being conscripted for wars, while having to prove how pious they are.

    Pope Joan is a pope with a secret, mainly that she’s passing as a man. And to me, this rings very true. With the low opinion of women that was common at the time, I’m sure a lot of women decided to go this route, even with the great danger of being discovered.

    Of course, there is a romance in this book, and of course, Joan is constantly torn between love and the opportunities that have unfolded for her. My only real complaint with the book is that her lover, Gerold, is a bit one-dimensional: handsome, brave, understanding, accepting, pretty much perfect. He seems to have stepped out of a bodice-ripper and landed here in a more thoughtful novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Definitely a page turner. Sometimes I felt the action was too abrupt with not enough build up, but I can easily look past that and I say I really couldn't get enough of this book. The subject nature is intriguing and it's a well told story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love religious conspiracies... I also love stories of women who are trying to be smarter than the world wants them to be. Hooray for Pope Joan!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A compelling look at a little-known Dark Ages legend. Cross has certainly done her research and patched together a story that is astonishingly believable in addition to well-written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Back in the Middle Ages there was a popular legend of a 9th century woman who, disguised as a man, became Pope. Whether or not you believe this to be the truth doesn't matter much, because the story of this brave and intelligent woman is engaging regardless. I loved learning about all the strange superstitions and infuriating prejudices. Joan's own journey captured my heart as well. Excellent historical fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having grown up in a society in which women were (and sometimes still are) very coherced by their sex, I found Joan to be a very believable character. Sometimes the plotline seems to be a little too thin, with a very real character being led by luck toward a destiny in too many instances. Even so, one can see Joan taking those decisions. The Dark Ages setting is also a very difficult one to pull off, from a writers point of view. There are so many details of day to day life that are unknown to us, that it seems to be an impossible task to create a vibrant setting for the main story. In this case the attempt is successful, and one feels to be then and there while following Joan's life and tribulations.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This historic novel is based on possible history, depending on the accuracy of disparate written accounts of Ninth Century Europe. Regardless, this is an interesting story of a strong women at a time when it wasn't believed that women had any rights, need to reason or be educated, or function other than childbearing and tending the home. The prose is sometimes excessively dense, but the reader gets a strong sense of the times, the barbarity of war, the weakness of Roman politics, and the duplicity of the Church. The unrequited romance carries the plot along to a fairly abrupt ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really did want to like this book. The author is a good storyteller, does a wonderful job of evoking a real sense of the period (no shirking of historical research here), and the idea of a female pope is a fascinating one. One can imagine that spiritual women denied access to the church, or clever women denied access to learning, might indeed have sought to escape the confines of their gender. But somewhere between Joan/John outarguing Greek philosophers, becoming a famous healer, inventing intinction, miraculously surviving beatings/viking raids/plague, inventing modern courtroom procedure (witnesses, questioning), establishing orphanages, saving peasants from floods, cleverly applying her knowledge of hydraulic engineering to save the Vatican from an invading Frankish army, saving the pope from assassination, exposing ecclesiastical corruption, and thwarting a raging city fire, I found it harder and harder to keep suspending disbelief. This Pope Joan is a liberal, feminist, secular humanist, Dark Ages superhero rather than a living, breathing, believable woman of her time. The author takes such pains to eliminate anachronism in all other aspects of the novel: perhaps that is why John/Joan's highly anachronistic behavior & beliefs seem so grating in contrast. John/Joan's enamorata Gerold is also a disappointment. There is no attempt at character development here. Think Ken to Joan's Barbie, Ned to Joan's Nancy Drew ... the tall, lusty, handsome, resourceful hero of any one of a thousand cheesy romance novels. Finally, I was disappointed by the author's overreliance on deus ex machina. Far too often she relies on improbable plot twists, timely intercessions and amazing coincidences to move her plot forward. I don't want to spoil the plot for potential readers - but I will say that Joan always seems to be behind the right wall when there is a useful conversation to be overheard, Viking raids have never been more conveniently timed, and old friends/allies have a way of miraculously appearing just when they are most needed. I guess I'm saying that while this is an entertaining book, it is certainly not a great book. Be prepared to enjoy it for the story & the history, but not necessarily for the literary merit.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A really stunning first novel, based on the historical person who disguised herself as a man and rose to the rank of Pope.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die. Pope Joanm the ninth century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Medieval women were forbidden to learn. When her brother is killed in a Viking raid, Joan takes up his cloak and his identity and enters the monastery of Fulda as Brother John Anglicus.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pope Joan had been waiting on my TBR shelf for quite some time. Initially, it was recommended by friends from another site, and my tastes have changed a bit over the past few years. The story, based on legend that may or may not have roots in reality, has a lot of potential: in the ninth century, a brilliant young woman resents the fact that she cannot receive the same education as her brothers. Her elder brother teaches her to read in secret (their father is a stereotypically brutal, misogynistic clerical ogre), and when a respected visiting scholar learns that Joan can read Latin, he arranges for her further education. She lodges with the family of Gerold, a high-ranking soldier in the service of the emperor, but his jealous wife has other plans for Joan. By luck, circumstances, and her own ingenuity and perseverance, Joan eventually disguises herself as a man and makes her way up the apostolic ladder.On the plus side, Cross creates a detailed picture of life and its hardships in the medieval period, and the character of Joan, although somewhat naive, is nevertheless engaging. She also does a fairly good job of demonstrating the infighting and struggles for power within the Catholic church. But the novel is not without flaws. For one thing, the baddies are unrealistically and relentlessly bad, and circumstance plays far too great a role. (Joan's father, for example, not only whips her nearly to death for wanting to learn, he later tries again to kill her--but has a opportune stroke in the process.) Also, I really hate it when supposedly 'serious' historical novelists feel that they have to wallow in romance. Joan's mooning over Gerold for almost 30 years got to be a bit much, and when he finally shows up, confessing love and offering marriage, her refusal to give up her disguise (and "responsibilities"--i.e., power) is therefore hard to believe. Of course, the two of them eventually have an earth-shaking moment of love that leads to both their downfalls.Cross's message seems to be that women--even medieval women--are capable of having it all. Over and over, Joan refers to the educated St. Catherine and to various noblewomen who are renowned for their education and wisdom but who have also produced numerous offspring. In other words, she's applying twentieth-century feminism to medieval society. Since Pope Joan is a work of fiction, that's forgiveable, even if it stretches the imagination a bit too far.For the most part, I enjoyed the novel, despite several groaner moments. But it's not a book that will stick with me for long.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I generally don't like historical fiction but this book was very well written and kept my attention. It did get a little long towards the end.